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For the first time in history the award-winning documentary Harvest of Despair brought the 1932-33 terror famine in Ukraine into the awareness of the world. Perpetrated by Stalin’s Soviet government which sought to destroy Ukrainians as a nation, the famine is one of the most terrible crimes of the 20th century. It claimed 10 million lives in Ukraine.

Translated into Ukrainian, French, and Spanish, Harvest of Despair was shown in Canada on CBC, in the US on PBS, in England on the BBC as well as in Australia, Argentina and Sweden and on other TV networks. Before the 1991 independence referendum in Ukraine Harvest of Despair was telecast on the Ukrainian national television network. The film was the essential catalyst in finally breaking down the USSR denial that a man-made famine had occurred in Ukraine in 1932-33.

This documentary film established the existence and the extent of this genocidal crime against humanity which had been so skillfully concealed by the Soviet Union that half a century later the western world remained a victim of Soviet propaganda.

A one hour documentary, Harvest of Despair, has been widely screened around the world, and is regularly shown in schools, colleges and universities. It has provided an insight into the Soviet totalitarian system and a better understanding of the reasons for the struggle of Ukraine for independence.

A really great documentary, definitely a staple of Holodomor research. It ran into a lot of problems being shown in the US as many PBS affiliates would not air it giving flimsy excuses time and time again, but finally caved into public pressure after they could no longer defend their unscrupulous decision.

This video was the first popularized evidence of the man-made famine, a voice to finally rise against the Soviet propoganda and Western venality. It was not brought about by drought, or crop activitists, it was brought in for the task from Russia, physically removed virtually all of the food from the region. The famine was the realization of Soviet Foreign Minister Maksim Litvinov’s dictum, “Food is a weapon.” It was also the precursor of starvation politics in Afghanistan and Ethiopia.